The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

[Deleted User]

I'm hearing conversations on the bus between people of all ages about doing some extra shopping before Brexit just in case, I think the next few weeks are going to be those 'interesting times' we've all been living in but magnified as people get increasingly twitchy about the effects of Brexit. I think this is the beginning of when the shops might not be able keep up with demand and non preppers will get worried if they find gaps on supermarket shelves. Time to make sure you have enough of the things you use most frequently methinks and top up if necessary.

DigForVictory

Popped in on parents, who are more prepared for Brexit than I anticipated.

A pleasant surprise to hear they both have a three month supply of their pills collected last week, that they have an ice-cream tub Full of hearing aid batteries (oh good - it really is hard to communicate unless they are live-wired for sound), that youngest daughter had gone on a spree stocking up on all the European treats she felt they could not live without (!) & they were calmly recalling they had lived through a world war & were quite prepared to eat local again, for a while.

Plus, albeit with a distinct twinkle in the eye, they expect a black/grey market to start up as soon as any inconveniences are noted. They grinned cheerfully at my mobile phone habit & pointed out wholly reasonably that once you know that there are reasonably priced whatevers available at such & such, you can make intelligent decisions as to what you want.

A colleague has smiled wryly and said that as a vegetarian with an allotment, she's actually more peeved at the rise in the cost of stamps, but her Italian cousin recently visited with several litres of the really nice olive oil, so she hoped to cope for a bit "without too much fuss".

[Deleted User]

Watching the news this morning it seems that we have reached impasse with the EU and also with the UK parliament, the government don't seem to be able to change anything pertaining to the Brexit agreement with the EU and should they be able to do so no one in post as an MP will be able to agree with any other MP so we're on a hamster wheel just going in never ending circles and rapidly getting nowhere.


I think this coming week I'm going to take some of our savings and make some investments, I'm going to try for a 6 month supply of things like washing powder and fabric softeners, cooking oil, loo rolls, tea and coffee, otc meds etc.. I've just about got space in the store room where the goods will stay there as long as I can still get equivalent goods on a by week basis. I really don't know where or when this whole sad debacle is going to end but I think there will be difficulties to face in all areas until we find a resolution to the impasse. I think people are so fed up with the constant uncertainty that sooner or later things will not be as amicable and tolerant as they have been up to now and tempers will fray, attitudes will harden and some people will want to take some action to change things. I don't want to be caught up in any of it so to have enough to be able to stay out of the way and be unnoticed will be a good thing in my eyes.

[Deleted User]

Have just found it really pays to be prepared as the power just went out, luckily we'd had lunch but I could dig out the whistling kettle for the hob, found the gas was still useable and had matches ready in the drawer in the kitchen and could make us hot drinks. The gas board have been in the area for weeks now digging up roads and renewing pipes which is needed I know but they must have hit a cable as our near neighbours have been in and out with the power supply all day, we're lucky it's only been the one for us so far. We had a letter from the electricity supplier saying that we'd be off for the day one day next week as there is an ongoing problem for all the houses in this part of the road with lights dimming and flickering all the time and it's due to a new build across the road where the electricity supply was put in incorrectly so they have now to fix that and hopefully that will be an end to the problems. However, they fixed it once before not so long ago.....good to know I can still manage even without some of the benefits of modern living.

Zentimes

As a matter of interest, how do you all calculate how many meals your supplies will make? I'm amassing more tins and bags of various things but am not at all sure how to figure out just how many meals they'll make. Any hints from you pro preppers?

[Deleted User]

It depends on what you've stocked up on, take instant mash, the bigger packs of Mr.Mash that are under a pound in Home Bargains contain 4 x bags that are each 4 adult portions when made up. Now you could just use them that way and have 4 meals with mash as a side BUT if there are only two of you do you split the bag and have half with a meal or do you make up the lot, use 2 and then make another meal from the leftovers. Mash makes many things, it makes potato gnocchi, it makes potato cakes and potato bread, it can be mixed with baked beans and cheese triangles, a little tomato ketchup and some herbs to make a meal in its own right, if there's any of that left you can add stock cubes, hot water and seasoning and make that into a fairly substantial soup that you can have with some of the potato cakes. You can add grated cheese to mash, stir in a little mustard and a dash of Worcester sauce and you've got a rarebit to spread on toast and grill if you have any of that left it makes a good base to a dish of cheesy veg or spread on some stale bread, cut into squares and soaked in egg and milk and you have a savoury bread and butter pudding. It's difficult to say how many meals your stocks will make but by thinking outside the box it might be more than you realise.

Zentimes

Thank you MrsLurcher, I feel quite peckish after reading your suggestions! There are just the two of us at home, I have a lot of dietary requirements but fortunately OH can eat anything I can't. I need to have food as fresh as possible (I've got histamine intolerance) and gluten free (this latter is simpler to deal with). Of late I tend to cook only what I need and not more so it's all used up, but for some meals freezing the leftovers works as freezing prevents further histamine development in food leftovers. That's fine if the freezer is working OK and we have electricity. Without the means to store leftovers then I simply would make only what I can eat for one meal. If it's something tinned then I'd need to use the whole tin.

I was thinking that I could work out portion size (for example, one portion of rice is 3 oz, then divide the bag size by that, giving total portion number per bag) but of course one doesn't eat rice alone so then I'd need to factor in additional food to be added. I suppose another angle could be from past shopping lists, figure out how many of a product I normally use per month.

[Deleted User]

Hi Zentimes, if you have all the component parts in dry or stores form of things that you can eat might it be an idea to make up the rice/other cereal base for several different flavours of meals in sealed bags so if you do need to use the preps all you have to do is add in whatever fresh ingredients can be had to make your meal. That way you'll know how many meals you have the capacity to make. I always did that to take on holiday with us as both my girls have had allergy problems with various foods in the past so I'd make up a risotto mix which just needed stock added to cook, a Bolognese mix, a chilli mix, a curry mix, lentil dahl etc. all of which we could just put in a pan and add water to to make a meal we could all eat. Hope that helps?

For a home made impromptu cooler to use when the power is off look up 'ZEER POTS' which are made from terracotta pots, sand, cold water and a cloth cover. One of these would enable you to store the other half of a tin in a sealed container for an overnight period to enable to use it the next day without it making you poorly.

mardatha

I wish there was somewhere we could find out where certain things come from - like washing powder, or washing up liquid, or bog rolls etc. I bet we're in for a shock and end up finding the oddest things come from Europe and there's a hold up in supply.

Karmacat

Zentimes wrote: »

I have a lot of dietary requirements but fortunately OH can eat anything I can't. I need to have food as fresh as possible (I've got histamine intolerance) and gluten free (this latter is simpler to deal with). Of late I tend to cook only what I need and not more so it's all used up, but for some meals freezing the leftovers works as freezing prevents further histamine development in food leftovers. That's fine if the freezer is working OK and we have electricity. Without the means to store leftovers then I simply would make only what I can eat for one meal. If it's something tinned then I'd need to use the whole tin.

You might want to look into sprouting microgreens - I apologise for being evangelical about them, but I went on a hydroponic farm tour on Tuesday, and it's fantastic! You can use soil or a liquid feed, they only take a couple of days of soaking and a 7 - 10 days of growing, and you're done. I collected a whole slew of bookmarks on Wednesday in my enthusiasm :rotfl: I'm going to have a serious research project on the go.